Thomas De Monaco, photographer & director

Two aspects make De Monaco’s work so unique: the light that wraps itself around the objects like a magical spirit, and the disturbing and provocative arrangements in each individual picture. This combination safeguards his leading international ranking among conceptual still photographers. And it is the origins of his career and his craftsmanship that make him a highly desirable partner for innovative projects.

After studying design and marketing in Europe and the USA, De Monaco launched his career in advertising with DDB and Saatchi & Saatchi. Later he was appointed Art Director at Globus Department Stores, Switzerland's foremost luxury goods retailer. In 1990, Thomas established his own studio. Since then, he operates internationally. So he met Riley Johndonnell of Surface magazine in San Francisco in 1998. A long-standing cooperation quickly evolved and De Monaco became European contributor to the avantgarde magazine. He found a second home in the design scene in Milan and London. He documented works by Zaha Hadid in Germany and Richard Serra’s installations in conjunction with the opening of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. For Wallpaper, he was chauffeured to the showrooms of Ron Arad and Romeo Gigli. The visual energy that was in the air around the change of the millennium permeated his work and he developed a private, very subjective way of seeing objects. Today, it is difficult to pinpoint exactly when the transformation from designer to photographer occurred. Perhaps it is not even necessary to separate these disciplines. Many works have grown conceptually from this fusion. It is the source of the visual language for Falke’s ergonomic sport system for Meiré und Meiré in Berlin and the visual systems for Rolex developed for JWT Open Paris. Increasingly, brands can only distinguish themselves through new formal fragments and aspects. This approach has led to a correspondingly long list of commissions, including Loewe, Moët & Chandon, Mercedes, Peugeot, UBS, HSBC, and IWC International Watch Company. Motion and interaction are communicational aspects that have engaged Thomas De Monaco since 2005. Images are morphing into three dimensions, so there is still much for him to do.

De Monaco and his family live in Zürich, just close to the lake. He is represented internationally and works in studios in Paris and New York. It is unusual for a still life photographer to travel the world. But the combination of unreal conurbations and elemental nature increasingly informs his work. His fetish for objects is unquenched. Ethically and morally questionable luxury fascinates him as much as the sensual and organic structures of flora and fauna. This is exemplified most clearly by a commission for Victor magazine. De Monaco and David Lynch were invited to test a new camera system by Hasselblad. Both stories were rejected because the pictures depicted reality with too much realism, intensity and expressiveness. De Monaco knows no taboos. The only constant is his visual language, which will always be photographic and honest, both in his artistic and commercial commissions.